Mass Effect: Side Story
by Soldier167
Summary: An other side story with another set of unlikely heros


**CHAPTER 1****  
****Costly Attempt****  
**  
The vastness of space lay silent as a hum in the distance gradually began to get louder. There a huge dreadnought with a Batarian pirate insignia stamped on its side drifted ever so slowly as it orbited a blue gas giant. A faint hum can be heard coming from another direction, but it got louder faster as if something with a purpose is heading towards the pirates. A sudden huge blast occurred as a gargantuan dreadnought passed by a split second after the blast that came from its boosters. Dawned in blue and white, with cannons riddled on its side and a colossal cannon on its tip, on the side painted the words SSV Berlin. The arches of the Alliance insignia was branded next to the ship's name.

Derek could hear their broadside cannons up and running, firing fiercely into the pirates as the pirate dreadnought returned fire and their projectiles pounded against the barrier shields of the Berlin. His CO then walks into view inside the shuttle and signals his squad to enter. Derek stands up, turned back and fist pounded another marine behind him as that soldier walked towards another shuttle on the opposite side.

"Good luck Derek" spoken kindly but confidently by the other marine. "You too Will, I'll see you on the other side of the ship" replied Derek calmly but evidently nervous.

The doors of the shuttle slowly slid closed and Derek sat calmly as he heard the shuttle gradually powering up. He wondered for a minute because Rena hasn't contacted him in a week. He's worried if some fool on the colony who discriminates and dislikes Quarians had done something to her, afterall she gets sick easily. A few possibilities popped up in his mind at that very moment. Perhaps she injured herself repairing some of the heavy duty machinery, or perhaps someone decided to really show her why they disliked Quarians. Derek shook his head, convincing himself that he maybe thinking too much and worrying himself unnecessarily.

"Listen up lads!" Derek heard from his commanding officer, with his thick, cracked and tough voice with a tough British accent. "These bastards have already ransacked a few of our colonies and gunned down three of our crusier ships for the past five months, our job now is to split our company up into two squads and take them out on both sides of the ship" shouted the officer. "We'll rendezvous with squad jaguar on the ship's bridge. We'll take a shit on their controls, plant the bomb and hightail it back to the shuttles before we blow the bastards down the shithole" yelled the officer with a humorous tone. "Yes sir lieutenant Walkers!" yelled Derek and the others, confirming the lieutenant that they are clear on their orders.

Derek could feel his heart pounding harder and harder as he got more nervous by the minute. He had been on a few shakedown runs and never on something this major. Even though he did exceptionally well during the his shakedown missions eight months ago, a shakedown run is still just a shakedown run even though it got him his rank. Training is still just training even though he was one of the recruits with the best scores. He was scared, he didn't know what to expect, he didn't know how it would end.

"Nervous sergeant Sykes?" startled the lieutenant. Derek looked up with is eyes wide open staring at the lieutenant with a warm smile on his face. "err.. yes sir, my first time on a major offensive sir." answered Derek with a poorly disguised confident voice, evident enough for the lieutenant to sense his fear. "Don't worry boyo, stick with me and you'll be fine" replied the lieutenant with a sincere voice before patting Derek on his back as a gesture of reassurance and walking away.

Suddenly over Derek's coms he hears a playful, joking voice of a man "Hey how's ma man!?".

"What now Will" replied Derek jokingly.

"Awwwwww c'moooooon dude, your fist pound is the most love I got from you since last month, you're worrying too much about your girl, dude. She's gonna be fine, everyone loves her. It's just those two troublemakers that has problems with her and that means they're minor idiots. You know that right?" spoke Will and his humorous voice.

"Yea you're right dude, sorry for the cold shoulder. Just worried that's all" said Derek in his usual shy voice. Will continued "Besides you're lucky, Quarians can be hot! Of all the girls I had in my time, I've never had a Quarian, dude... What's it like?"

"Okay man, now you're an asshole" answered Derek with a laugh. "whaaat, you can't blame a ladies man who had every piece of ass this galaxy could offer and still didn't taste a Quarian for asking you for some legitimate information?" said Will with a clown like voice.

"Your outta line sergeant Szeto" remarked Derek still laughing mildly, "How's your Drell girlfriend?" asked Derek. Will's voice gradually calming down " Well, we're working things out, just had some troubles with her lately that's all, I really think this one is it man." Derek faintly surprised to hear those words from his friend, "shit I never expected to hear you say those words, you settling down Will?".

"Not yet man, after all we're still just halfway through our twenties, but I got a feeling about his one, I think I'll end up with her for a long time if not forever, might as well be forever. Know what I'm saying man?" said Will calmly. "I hear you dude" replied the Derek.

"By the way" said Will with a slightly more serious voice now, "did you hear? Commander Shepard's alive, he went through the Omega four relay and came back, which means he kicked some collector ass, probably wiped them out too."

"You're shittin me, he's alive?" asked Derek with slight amazement, "oh yea, very much so" answered his friend.

"Alright, cut the chatter lads, we're making contact with their port hole!" Yelled the lieutenant.

Derek inspected his blue heavy armor briefly and then inspected his helmet briefly before wearing it. He saw if his Predator pistol was in place on his utility belt and then stood up and took his assault rifle from his back, sliding the switch simultaneously and unfolding his Avenger, getting it ready for what is to come next.

Derek's heart at this point is pounding away from his chest. He could hear his own heavy breathing confined to his helmet, his breath amplified to himself from bouncing off the inside of his helmet and it only made him even more nervous. He could hear the Batarian bulkhead airlock on the other side unlocking and the air from within the shuttle being sucked out into space. And then, the doors of the shuttle began to open and on the other side he saw the Batarian doors turning to unlock itself.

The doors split from the middle into two sections, and it slowly slide apart from each other vertically. Derek held is breath along with every fellow marine in the shuttle, expecting to see Batarians blazing away at them with their uncivilized weapons, blasting away with shotguns and assault rifles, projectiles raining into the shuttle. Derek held is rifle steady like he had learnt on his shakedown runs and would not make the same mistake of panicking and loosing control of his rifle allowing fear to shake his weapon away from his hands.

When the doors were open, it was quite the opposite. There was no one there, no sign of any Batarian pirate what so ever. Lieutenant Walkers walked in front scanning the walls of the corridor with his omni-tool, making sure there were no close quarter mines, improvised explosive devices and no traps ahead of them. "Alrite lads" sounded Walkers calmly, "nice and easy now".

The squad made their way into the empty, dark and cold corridor in formation, keeping their eyes peeled staying vigilant as then went along. The metal walls were rusty, the paint had chipped off. The ceiling was dripping liquid obviously coming from broken parts on the ship that no Batarian would ever bother to repair. "This don't feel right Lieutenant, shouldn't they be in here shooting at us by now" nervously commented by one of the marines in the group. "Shut your trap and stay focused private Michaels" replied Walkers annoyingly.

"I mean they won't just let us walks into the bridge just like that right?" sounded Michaels. Walkers ignored the overly nervous private and saw not far in front was another bulkhead with a terminal next to it. He holstered his pistol and marched his way to the terminal.

"This thing is code locked, but the software is a piece o'shit this. Hold position boys, I'll have this damn thing hacked in the giffy" said Walkers in his usual calm and confident but cracked voice. On the coms they can hear the other squad giving out their status.

"Jaguar is in position, readying entry into the bridge" sounded another officer on the other side of the coms. "Roger that" assured Walkers, "Colossus is in position ready for entry".

The coms crackled for a bit and all of a sudden squad colossus could hear gun fire and the screaming of the officer, "oh god! They're every where, they just pop up and came out of no where, there's too many of them, aaahhhhh!" screamed the officer in painful agony. "Jaguar!" yelled Walkers trying his best to get some sort of confirmation from squad jaguar.

"How's Will?" asked Derek nervously, fearing that his childhood friend may have perished in the firefight. Walkers signaled Derek to keep quiet and calm down in one simple hand gesture. Walkers could hear the other side of the coms turn to static white noise after the other officer screamed. "Shit!" cried Walkers and in a split second, up on top of the walls pop Batarian pirates along with their shotguns. "Drop dead human scum" shouted one of them before they started blazing away.

A shotgun blast hit Michaels dead center in his chest, sending him flying into the wall and bouncing onto the ground. The others scrambled to take cover behind crates while returning fire. The bulkhead slide apart and opened quickly with more Batarians on the other side. Shooting away with their Vindicators, Derek and Walkers both took out a frag grenade. Walkers threw his into bridge. The grenade blasted and the large windows inside the bridge shatter open allowing the vacuum of space to suck everyone out, Human and Batarian alike. Walkers gripped onto the holes on the floor while Derek grabbed a pipe and letting go of his triggered grenade. Most of everyone else by then was sucked into space long ago.

A bulkhead came down and sealed the broken window shut. Derek's grenade bounced off the side of the doorway before falling to the ground. On the other side of the coms, the two marines can tell that it had cleared and again their heard gun fire which implied part of squad jaguar was still in the fight. The two marines fell to the ground and as they did, the bodies of those that didn't get sucked into space fell along with them.

When Derek tried to get up, his grenade blew. He could see the shields of his armor flicker with blue light, but the blast was so huge it knocked the two marines away from each other.

Alarms were sounding, computer voices indicated failures in the ship, red lights where blinking, gas were leaking from damaged pipes and tubes, and Derek is on all fours knocked semi unconscious. Everything seems slow around him as he drowsed, his ears can hear the high pitched sound of bells ringing. Derek could see everything was going dark on him, his vision was a blur and he could feel himself falling into the hands of unconsciousness believing that this was the end for him, and in the midst of all this he can hear the muffled fearful and slow voice of Will on his coms.

"Oh my god... They're dead...they're all... dead...".


End file.
